by Fox Doucette Arturo “Thunder” Gatti and “Irish” Micky Ward put on what is, for your columnist's money, the greatest fight of the twenty-first century so far; better than Corrales-Castillo, better than the Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez fights, better than Matthysse-Molina, and for damn sure better than the “Fight of the Century”, Mayweather-Pacquiao. Ward-Gatti I, on May 18, … [Read more...]
The Day the NBA Murdered Boxing: On Chris Paul and Pacquiao-Mayweather
by Fox Doucette By itself, boxing could probably have survived the all-hype, no-substance boring fight that happened last night between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Really, anyone with an ounce of sense knew exactly how the fight was going to go---Floyd's style was the Achilles heel of Manny's strengths, which meant we'd see a low-output, play-it-safe approach that … [Read more...]
What If Golden Boy Wins Its Lawsuit Against Al Haymon?
by Fox Doucette (author's note: I know I said I was doing a May-Pac parody with Rocky Marciano and Ezzard Charles as the players in the tale---trouble was, the jokes, which were film noir inspired, just weren't working, and the fight action itself...well, I've done that twice before. So, on short notice, you get a much shorter and less historical edition of this column---on the … [Read more...]
What If Teofilo Stevenson Went Pro? (Part 2)
by Fox Doucette When last we left Cuban sensation Teofilo Stevenson, he'd just taken his third knockout loss, falling first to Earnie Shavers and George Foreman before Muhammad Ali stopped Stevenson, still only 23 years old, on February 20, 1976. Stevenson lost the eye of the tiger after that fight; he'd been in with world championship-caliber fighters, but never sniffing the … [Read more...]
Tony Harrison Beats Up The Janitor: ESPN Friday Night Fights Recap
by Fox Doucette Tony Harrison (21-0, 18 KOs) moved one step closer to graduating from the Deontay Wilder School of Early-Career Opponents as he knocked out Pablo Munguia (20-7, 11 KOs) in three rounds in a farce of a main event on ESPN2 Friday Night Fights from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. In the co-feature, we learned what happens when a guy who can't … [Read more...]